The elections for the renewal of the European Union (EU) parliament held
from 6 to 9 June confirmed the advance of the right, even in its mostextreme components, a trend that at a continental level was only
partially countered by the results of the French legislative elections
held on 30 June and by those of the political elections held in England
the following July where, respectively, the rise of the reactionary
alignment of the French Rassemblement National (RN) of Marine Le Pen,
already winner of the European elections, was stopped by the victory of
the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) formed by an alliance of left-wing
political parties, and the English Conservatives were defeated by the
Labour Party.
The above-mentioned victories in the political elections in France and
England were greeted in Italy with an irritating emphasis that hid a
conscious desire for de-contextualization, considering that they were
uncritically assumed as a premise for the reconstruction of a united
left, in order to counter the hegemony of the right even in its
national-fascist configurations and for a concrete hypothesis of
government of the left.
Of course, the reference to the situation in the USA could not be
missing, but this omission was resolved by Walter Veltroni who
authoritatively stated: "Harris must unite radicals and moderate
Democrats. Beating Trump means saving democracy". (La Stampa, 25/07/24).
All these statements that followed one another, alternating
superficiality, naivety and arrogance, have however clarified the true
strategic intention of the parliamentary left, also considering that the
entire Italian left in its political and trade union components, from
the most moderate and mass to the most radical and minority, all lament
the absence of one or more parliamentary political shores capable of
ferrying social demands into the institutions of the state, delegating
to them the defense of the interests of our class that thus becomes
expropriated from any possibility of control.
Beyond the best intentions of those who in the past have entered into
these political and institutional paths, there is the concrete reality
of the balance of power between capital and labor that, in the absence
of generalized social conflict, pulls in the direction of capital
especially in the institutions, where an inevitable downward mediation
takes place and to the total detriment of the interests of the subaltern
classes.
The history of social conflict shows instead that the greatest victories
have not been obtained "in parliament" as a certain now generalized
reformist rhetoric wearily replies, but with the mobilizations organized
and well prepared by a widespread political and trade union militant
fabric, capable of generalizing the objectives by imposing on the
employers and the institutions a more equitable redistribution of the
social wealth produced that does not feed profits and incomes but the
material interests of our class for its liberation, even if partial,
from need: but the militant fabric is now worn out and this constitutes
an aspect on which it is necessary and urgent to start a reflection.
On the other hand, there is little to be happy about because in France
the "anti-fascist glue" constituted by the need to stem the rise to
government of M. Le Pen's RN and which allowed the victory of the NFP,
has rapidly weakened with the re-emergence of old controversies between
the different political components, aggravated by inevitable conflicts
for the conquest of the leadership, which have allowed Macron to
implement that "divide and conquer" to separate the components of the
NFP more tied to the moderation of the Socialist Party (PS) from
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise (FI), further dividing a dissent
that also concerns ongoing conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, which
sees the socialists against sending troops to the battlefields but in
favor of continuing to send weapons to the government in Kiev, while
Malenchon has taken a more possibilist position that also includes a
certain opposition to NATO.
In England, the defeat of the Conservatives allowed the triumph of the
Labour Party, a party that was moderate and warmongering, historically
oriented towards neoliberalism. In fact, the previous Labour governments
led by Tony Blair (1997-2007) distinguished themselves by completing the
plan for major industrial restructuring and all the privatisations of
public companies already planned by the previous Conservative
governments of M. Thatcher (1979-1990), which impoverished the lower
classes and weakened the unions, providing open support for the
imperialist conflicts in Kosovo (1999) and Iraq (2003).
Today in England the Labour Party is preparing to govern on the basis of
a replicated neoliberalism, but in a crisis situation that sees a fall
in GDP, together with the exposure of GB in the costly war in Ukraine:
history therefore repeats itself.
The scenarios that are taking place in England and France, as well as in
the EU and the USA, are complex, contradictory and not reassuring, which
open up to new perspectives and which must be analyzed in the context of
the clash between the powers for the control of the world market that
involves the weak and divided imperialism of the EU.
The EU is counting on the renewed election of Von der Leyen, by a
composite and contradictory alignment that includes the EPP, the
European Socialists (to which our PD adheres), the Greens and also
sectors of the more left-wing components.
The Italian government presented itself divided at this deadline, where
FI brought its support in favor of the election of Von der Leyen, while
the League and FdI denied it, thus confirming an indisputable proof of
weakness, which will in any case be destined to weigh heavily on the
future structures of the EU, which are announced to be unfavorable to
the Meloni government.
But the new European Parliament did not waste time and approved, as a
first measure, the increase in arms supplies to Ukraine (up to now the
supply of arms from the EU to Ukraine has reached the ceiling of 88
billion) and the removal of all limitations on their use also in Russian
territory (495 votes in favor; 137 against, 47 abstentions).
The measure also includes the request to member states to accelerate and
relaunch the production capacity of military industries, allocating at
least 0.25% of GDP to military aid to Ukraine, all without any reference
to the possibility of diplomatic actions for peace. With this prompt
measure, the EU intended to demonstrate its total subordination to US
imperialism, NATO and rearmament policies, by implementing a conscious
and conspicuous aid to the European war industry, paid at the price of
containing public spending and therefore at the sole expense of the
workers and subordinate classes of the Union.
For the record, FdI and PD voted for the new European aid to the Kiev
government, albeit with different motivations, some announced hardship
and some defections. The political elections held in the EU also saw a
modest turnout (on average 51.05%, with the only exception being Germany
with 64.74%), which, instead, was partially stopped in the legislative
elections held in England (60.01%) and France (66.63%).
In Italy, however, the abstentionist phenomenon has manifested itself
with a tendential increase, reaching a voter turnout below the EU
average and equal to 48.31%.
The phenomenon of abstentionism, if on the one hand it should not be
demonized as the father of all misfortunes, should not be assumed as a
homogeneous fact, capable of expressing a generalized tendency to
rebellion. Abstentionism is a complex, contradictory and above all
articulated phenomenon, which must be analyzed in the context of the
crisis of bourgeois democracy and its institutions, as it is manifesting
itself in imperialist competition:
The decision-making centers are moving well beyond the individual
states, undermining their authority and the decision-making capacity
itself, concentrating in uncontrollable areas where the balance of power
between the powers prevails. Therefore, continuing to consider
parliamentarism as a strategy that can be pursued to control the ongoing
capitalist processes is frankly illusory. Abstentionism is a social
phenomenon that also includes qualified class minorities that must in
any case be intercepted by the political intervention of the
Revolutionary Organization.
Even in the international anarchist communist sphere we have witnessed
the effort of the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL), our French sister
political Organization, which, rather than hiding behind an ideological
and principled abstentionism, has expressed, albeit critically, a
position of support for the NFP, a position motivated by the tactical
need not to isolate itself from a mass context capable of containing the
reaction and opening new spaces for class intervention, without any
electoral and parliamentary illusions.
However, it is also worth noting our more critical position, which
identifies the French NFP as a contradictory experience that could also
replicate the electoral illusion causing new and lethal disorientation,
as has also happened in Italy, Spain and Greece. In our country, the
government appears divided on the war. The Prime Minister has not yet
commented on the new Ukrainian offensive on Kursk, while the League
declares itself resolutely against the use of Italian weapons on Russian
soil: and while the public debt stands, compared to the month of May, at
2,919 billion euros, setting an alarming record, the government is
preparing to launch measures to increase military spending in compliance
with the limit of 2% of GDP which, evidently, has not yet been exceeded,
all in compliance with the wishes of the USA, NATO and the war industry.
In this context of war and of employer and government offensive on the
conditions of the subaltern classes, social opposition manifests itself
in areas that remain isolated, failing to generalize to broader
contexts. This is because the union organization is now weakened in the
workplace and with it the militant and also political fabric of
reference, and this does not allow for a widespread reality of disputes
in companies, territories and national bargaining.
The capitalist logic of profit and its concentration is therefore not
effectively countered by conflict and is spreading throughout society to
the detriment of our class, undermining the quality of life, the rights
gained, health and safety in the territories and workplaces, promoting
poverty and marginalization.
The state of opposition social movements also suffers from the same
limitations and the struggles for the defense of the environment, the
mobilizations for peace that have seen student movements at the
forefront, as well as the struggles of women for the defense of their
conquests and, in general, the widespread struggles for the right to
housing, to basic public services, such as health and education and for
the protection of the weakest social strata are unable to find the unity
necessary to counter the ongoing employer and government attack.
In this situation, the CGIL, the largest Italian union, is leading a
"referendum opposition" that is not accompanied by social conflict but
which, in fact, replaces it. Therefore, there is no longer any trade
union action, both in terms of disputes and contracts, capable of
uniting entire categories of workers, precarious workers and non-workers
with the social realities of opposition movements, which is instead
delegated to an action entirely projected on the political and
institutional level, namely the referendum, which does not allow the
sedimentation of a broad militant fabric capable of acting effectively
in a unitary perspective in situations of crisis and government and
employer attacks, moreover not avoiding a new electoral defeat.
All this is happening in a situation of recrudescence of neo-fascist
squads openly protected by the institutions and of government repression
with respect to freedom of the press and freedom to demonstrate,
increasing the penalties already provided for by the penal code against
any dissent, even verbal.
What emerges clearly from the phase we are dramatically experiencing are
the widespread armed conflicts that in the world have now reached the
number of 56, the highest since 1945, in an "escalation" that
increasingly brings the risk of a third world war closer.
This is the framework in which we are witnessing a generalized attack on
the environment that is occurring not only on the unfortunately
widespread battlefields, but throughout the planet whose defense and
maintenance of the territories is completely disregarded by this
government as by the previous ones, culpably omitting the consequences
of the capitalist management of the territories that, privileging profit
(absence of maintenance, increase in large infrastructure works), has
certainly contributed to accelerating the devastating processes of
climate change.
Peace, social and class issues and environmental issues are objectives
that cannot proceed disjointed, but must sediment those profound unitary
processes that only the conscious and organized militant action of the
comrades present in the trade union movements and mass movements is able
to carry out for the overcoming of capitalism, for a world of peace,
freedom, equality and defense of the environment in all its implications.
These are the objectives of our political and organizational action.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/blog/2024/09/16/leuropa-dei-padroni-e-delle-loro-guerre/
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